One last kick at the kitty.
In all honesty, I'm really not a history nazi. 99% of the stuff that people complain about doesn't bug me. And here's why: most of the problems are ones of style rather than substance. Take a recent picture in Dungeon for example that shows a guy with a syringe and glasses and a lab coat. This caused some ruffled feathers among the boards.
Me, I look at that and I say, well, a syringe was invented in about the 10th century, so, it "could" be part of a DnD setting even if it wasn't common, glasses were invented around the same time, so, again, it's possible. People in the Renaissance had the technology to make a lab coat, even if the styles were different. It wasn't that they couldn't do it, it's just that they didn't.
So, again, the problems become more about emulating history. I don't think DnD should emulate history, so, anachronistic styles don't bother me.
The ship thing, OTOH, does, although, apparently, I'm very much in the minority here. It's not simply a style thing. You couldn't have a sloop in the Renaissance any more than you could have an aircraft carrier. The technology just wasn't there. There is no way that you could build this ship using that period's technology. It can't be done.
That's, I guess, why it bothers me so much. I can live with full plate, and crossbows. Sure, they're a bit late, but, meh, not so much. Renaissance technology isn't going to radically alter DnD any more than it already has. Renaissance philosophy on the other hand... but that's a different issue. And, again, the technology and the philosophy don't necessarily have to follow.
But, to build a ship like this takes a very high level of technology. Rennaisance ships are clinker built - the boards of the hull are overlapping. A sloop's hull is fitted, each plank is joiced (sp) with its neighbours. This takes very specialized tools, a serious dry dock and some very advanced skills. If you have the tools and the skills to build a sloop, you can build a lot of other things. And, remember, a sloop is a very small ship for the time. If I can build a sloops, I can build an English Ship of the Line with 100 guns and carry about 800 men. This is some SERIOUS firepower.
I know, most people don't know and don't care. So, at the end of the day, this is my own personal axe to grind. It just bothers me that if you're going to do something, why do a half assed job of it and not do any of the research. One of the reasons I really like Buccaneers and Bokor is that they at least attempt to capture the history of the period. I'm not asking for PhD disertations on the history of sail. I'm asking that artists and designers pick up a couple of history books and use ships that actually fit the period, rather than ships which are so badly out of place.
